


Gonna Build My House In The Wildest Thickets (Lucky13 #13)

by megyal



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-26
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-06-04 15:00:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6663367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/megyal/pseuds/megyal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sasuke's big brother is accused of murder and he goes to school a raging mess of anger, busting fights and so on (and Naruto is the only one to still treat him like an asshole genius). [Pre-slash]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gonna Build My House In The Wildest Thickets (Lucky13 #13)

**Author's Note:**

> LAST LUCKY13 fic lol. Many months/years in the making BUT DONE. The prompt was for symetric@LJ, I don't even know if they still HAVE an LJ but if they DO...HERE IT IS!!! Not beta'ed ok thanks!

_"I'm gonna get away from all those mouths and my shit_  
_I'm gonna say goodbye to all the la-di-da"_

One Friday, Naruto comes home from school and tells his big brother, "Hey, I think something's wrong with that asshole Sasuke."

Iruka, looks up from the stack of books he's trying to read for an assignment. Sometimes Naruto feels a little guilty that Iruka has to be working so hard to take care of him AND go to uni at the same time, but Iruka tells him not to worry...not to ever worry. 

"Your job," he always tells Naruto, "is to go to school and get good grades. My job is to make sure you have everything else you need. Don't fuck up your end of the bargain and I definitely won't fuck up mine."

Naruto knows he's lucky that Iruka had kept his promise to apply for custody of Naruto when he'd aged out of the orphanage himself, and after he got a stable job; he didn't have to to, but Iruka understands what it's like to be in that place, waiting with decreasing hope on some family to look at him and say, "This one's gonna be _our_ kid."

Iruka is Naruto's family, and he's so happy and grateful for that fact. He might be a punk, but he's a reasonably _smart_ punk, and he's a reasonably smart punk on a soccer scholarship at one of the best academies in this part of the Fire Nation.

"Why do you think so?" Iruka asks, putting down his pen and pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, briefly rubbing at the scar there. That scar, a dark mark across smooth brown skin, is a horrible chronicle of the damages he suffered at the hands of his father's family, who took him in after his parents had died. He had actually come to the orphanage _after_ Naruto, and became the only person who could make Naruto laugh even when all his memories were still hot from the fire that had taken his house and his mom and his dad. He had been Naruto's big brother from even before he knew what those words really meant. 

Naruto goes to an overhead cupboard and fetches one of the three glasses, then opens the fridge and takes out a box of juice. He brings them to the tiny but tall countertop which stands in the middle of their well-lit kitchen. This is where Iruka always does his assignments, tapping out on the beat-up laptop he'd bought secondhand from another student. Naruto pours out the juice carefully, making sure not to splash any of Iruka's papers, and shrugs.

"He's just all weird or whatever," Naruto says, unable to formulate the twisting sensation in his stomach when he turned his head in class this morning and looked at the side of Sasuke's face. Sasuke, the head prefect for the three classes at their level; Sasuke, the genius who completes tasks so easily that it made Naruto grit his teeth in utter disgust and envy; Sasuke, who causes girls _two class-levels ahead_ to swoon when he sauntered in the halls.

Sasuke had been staring straight ahead, but there was the way his jaw was clenched, and his fists were clenched also, resting atop his thighs. He looked neat as always, the uniform of white shirt and dark trousers neatly pressed, striped tie knotted flawlessly. He also appeared completely lost.

Iruka looks at Naruto carefully and says, "Okay. Keep your eye on him."

"Okay," Naruto answers and goes to get his own books before Iruka pesters him over it.

On Saturday, he goes to class with Iruka because he likes hearing Professor Sarutobi lectures. Sometime the Professor will talk to Naruto, and he's a funny old guy with a dry sense of humour. After that, they go shopping for a few groceries, and it's really the best when Iruka isn't on shift at emergency dispatch. Naruto gets him all to himself and Iruka's jokes are corny-great.

On Sunday, Iruka tries to cook some chicken-and-vegetable combo, and fails spectacularly; too much salt, really and they end up noshing on some cup ramen. Naruto doesn't really mind, although Iruka is super grumpy over the chicken fiasco. Sunday evening, when he's already in bed, Iruka knocks on his door and looks in with a worried expression.

"Naruto," he says. "Come look at the news."

On the small television in the cramped living room, there's a Breaking Report. A reporter with messy hair and wide eyes is standing in front of a sweeping driveway. There are blue-and-red lights flashing, and Naruto can see an ambulance parked haphazardly on a well-kept lawn, beside another white van. The double-winged front doors are standing wide open, and Naruto can make out people moving back and forth inside the house, all of them dressed in white overalls and hair-caps and booties covering their shoes. Police officers are trying to move people back, gawkers and media, with little result.

"Got a text from one of my co-workers," Iruka explains as he turns up the volume and then sits on one arm of the couch, next to Naruto. "I think… that's your friend Sasuke's house?"

 _TRAGEDY AT UCHIHA MANSION_ , the caption on the screen says, and Naruto blinks rapidly. He sits forward on the couch and rests his elbows on his knees, chin propped up on knuckles. Two of the white-clad people come out with a stretcher rolling between them, the lights gleaming off the plastic surface of a bodybag. Two more followed, with another body between them.

"We've gotten word that Fugaku Uchiha and his wife, Mikoto Uchiha, have been found dead inside their mansion, after an alert raised by the head of Uchiha Heavy Industries Vice-President, Danzō Shimura. We don't have much detail at this moment, but their sons are still inside with detectives and...oh, someone is coming out. Someone's coming out."

"Sasuke," Naruto breathes when he sees the other teenager being led out of the house, a shiny-looking blanket covering what appeared to be his nightclothes. Sasuke's face, already naturally pale, is utterly bloodless. His eyes are dark pools in his face, deep and wide. He stumbles, nearly going down to his knees, and the officer with him helps him back to his feet.

The camera follows him for a few moments, and then swings back in a manner that is vaguely nauseating. Sasuke's older brother Itachi is being led out as well, but his hands are held behind his back. He is as pale as Sasuke, but he has a intensely calm air...almost distant. Naruto has only ever seen him dropping off Sasuke at school, even though he's sure that the Uchiha family has like twenty chauffeurs or something. He's a lot taller than Naruto had presumed.

"Looks like they're taking that guy in for questioning," Iruka remarks, and Naruto bit the inside of his lower lip, because as Itachi is pushed into another police vehicle, he can clearly see that there are handcuffs around his wrists.

"That's Sasuke's brother." Naruto turns and looked at Iruka. "Do you think he--?" He can't continue. That is too much for his brain to wrap around. Iruka lets out a long breath.

"I don't know," he answers. "We'll have to wait for more info, I guess."

"Yeah." Naruto nods. He gets up and ruffles Iruka's long hair affectionately.

But, when he goes to bed, he doesn't really get a good night's sleep at all.

\---

On Monday, at Konoha Academy, everyone is buzzing over the news of Sasuke and his family. All the students chatter at each other, and some of the teachers too, when they're not trying to teach class over the din. 

"I tried calling him," Sakura tells Naruto when he's doing some laps before football practice. She is doing her own training for hammer-throw, her best sport. Naruto had a huge crush on her, because she's so _strong_ , built sturdily, and he thinks she's really funny and smart. She'd been pretty into Sasuke, because that was like the general rule or something. She'd gotten over it and started to flirt with Lee.

Lee had been pretty stunned over that, to Naruto's amusement.

"Did you get him?" Naruto asks, jumping in place and then dropping into a deep squat. Sakura nods.

"He just said he couldn't talk at the moment, and then he hung up." Sakura's face twists into pitying lines. "It's pretty messed up, right?"

"Yeah," Naruto agrees in a murmur, and then Coach Guy screams at them to get on the field, and so he has to scramble away. Later, they eat lunch together as usual, but their table feels overly busy. Sasuke had taken to eating with them for the past few months, sometimes offering a brief smile at Naruto's awful jokes (gleaned from Iruka) and Sakura's friendly competitiveness. Apparently, either Sakura really liked a person or considered them a rival; there was generally no in-between. Naruto had once watched them compete to see who was the fastest at tapping out a long paragraph for a text message.

Yeah, that had been a wild time, but kinda quiet, as if Sasuke pulled placidity with him. Now, it just seems to be a lot: a lot of people, a lot of questions.

People keep asking them, in low whispers, if they'd heard about the Uchiha family, if they'd heard about Itachi...how about Sasuke? Heard from him yet? 

"No," Naruto says to anyone who keeps asking, "no, he's kind of going through a shitty time, don't you think?"

"I think he really did it," Kiba exclaims, and everyone turns and stares at him. It is then that Naruto realises that their small zone has been overthrown by a veritable faction: Kiba, Hinata and her haughty cousin Neji, Lee and Ten-Ten, Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji...who has managed to slide Naruto's lunch over to himself. Naruto jams a finger into Chouji's ribs and retrieves his plate.

"Don't say that, Kiba," Hinata says from Naruto's other side, her usually low, sweet voice hardened just a few notches.

"Yeah." Naruto glares at Kiba, while fending off Chouji's sneak attacks. "Don't be a jerk, Kiba."

Kiba just gives him a wide grin; telling him not to be a jerk is like telling the sun not to rise, or telling his dog that kisses are not really acceptable _all the time_. Naruto warns him again.

"Just...don't be a jerk."

All through the week, bits of information leak out into the stunned community. Itachi claims that he had woken up with a huge headache just inside his parents' room, bruised and bloodied. In his hand was one of his father's guns. His father had been lying on the ground just in front of him, his mother half in the bathroom. Someone else, he keeps saying. Someone else got into the house and killed them.

It doesn't help that he seems to have an extremely collected persona, and the media pounces on this. He's too calm, one 'expert' squawks on the early morning news. Someone that calm is clearly a psychopath. Iruka turns off the television with a snort of disgust.

It also doesn't help that Itachi and his father had been in deep disagreement over his future at Uchiha Industries. Itachi had been groomed to take over the large company and had decided that he didn't want the role at all. According to inside sources, it had been a large source of contention between Itachi and his father.

Large enough to kill.

Naruto thinks about it, and he tries to think about it some more when Sasuke comes back to school the next week. He doesn't get a chance to, because he and Sakura are kept kind of busy. Sasuke has apparently made a personal vow that anyone who says a word about Itachi will receive the best asskicking he can deliver.

Despite his rangy frame and smouldering good looks, Sasuke can deliver good asskickings. The first one he delivers, signed and sealed with pain, is to Kiba.

Everyone agrees that Kiba deserves it, including Kiba.

"At least I put up a good fight!" Kiba says through a bloody grin and Naruto has to grab Sakura so she doesn't dive over him to get to Kiba. They're all sitting on a long bench outside Principal Senju's office: Sasuke nearest the door, Sakura beside him, Naruto beside _her_ and Kiba on Naruto's other side. It's kind of a sad day that _Naruto_ is currently the most reasonable amongst his friends, but such is his life right now.

He hisses at Sakura, "Quit it," turns to Kiba and says, "Shut the fuck up," and says nothing to Sasuke. Sasuke is staring at the opposite wall as if he's trying to set fire to it just by looking. Inside Principal Senju's office, she yells at Kiba for his unadvisable words to Sasuke (he'd murmured something about Itachi being crazy); yells at Sasuke for starting a fight and yells at Sakura and Naruto just because.

"We stopped the fight," Naruto protests, his jaw still sore from where Sasuke had lashed out of him when he'd pulled him off of Kiba. 

Principal Senju glowers at him. "I know!" she snaps, and just glowers some more. Later, Sakura tells him that the principal was just troubled and perplexed.

That's just the first of many. Sasuke takes on Shikamaru, he takes on Ten-Ten and Lee at once; he even takes on Coach Guy. Every day; every single fucking day, until he takes on Naruto.

And the messed up thing is, Naruto hadn't said _anything_ about Itachi, so it really isn't fair. All he'd said was, "Could you dial down the rage, by like maybe a hundred?" Sasuke, who'd been sitting in the stands on the field, went from a stone-faced quietness to a snarling frenzy in half a second. He launches himself at Naruto, striking him in the ribs with a rattling series of punches. Naruto, who has gotten into quite a few fights in his short lifetime (not so much since he took up soccer, he has his scholarship to think about), takes these hits with as much equanimity as can be expected. Which is to say, not a lot.

He's shorter than Sasuke, but he's just as strong, and unlike everyone else so far, he allows himself to fight as dirty as Iruka taught him. He _bites_ Sasuke on the arm and then kicks him in the crotch. As his football team's best striker, his kicks are super debilitating, and Sasuke goes down like an old tree giving up on the sun. Quickly, Naruto leaps at him. He straddles Sasuke and pins his wrists down on either side of his head. Sasuke's eyes are full of tears. He looks _so angry_ and so _lost_.

"Look," Naruto says as Sasuke gasps in pain and trembles in rage. "Look, I'm here. I'm here for you because you're my friend, but you're not gonna take me out like that. You hear me?"

"You have no idea what the fuck I'm going through," Sasuke spits and tries to throw Naruto off. Naruto hangs on.

"I don't!" He says, leaning down so close that he can feel the warmth radiating from Sasuke's face. "But I'm here for you, okay?"

"Let me go." Sasuke is very calm, but his gaze is burning. "Let me up."

Naruto lets him up. Sasuke gets up gingerly and then he gives Naruto a long, hateful look.

Which is why Naruto is very surprised when Sasuke says, "Come hang out with me on Saturday. I'll text you...tell you where."

\--

Naruto might not be the smartest dude, but he isn't _stupid_ , and so he tells Iruka exactly where he's going on Saturday, even though Sasuke had sworn him to secrecy.

"This is out in the woods," Iruka says, looking at the map that Sasuke had sent to Naruto's phone. He holds Naruto's phone oddly: wrist bent at an odd angle as if the device that is secreting some kind of poison. This is an affectation that Naruto always finds amusing. Iruka had given Naruto this fancy phone for a birthday gift a few months ago. Iruka's own phone can only call and send text messages, just the way he likes it, but Naruto will wear him down to get a new one for himself. Soon.

Iruka hands him back his phone and gives him a very serious look. "You're going to be out there with him by yourself. I'll be calling on the hour. Every hour."

"He's not going to snap and kill me," Naruto tells him, even though he's relieved that Iruka is going to check up on him so frequently. He makes sure to charge his phone fully and when he cycles out to the place Sasuke tells him, he's glad to see that he still has very good reception. The place in the woods is actually close to the Uchiha mansion and its grounds. If he's not mistaken, it's part of the same massive plot of land, but he has to take a small path beside the tall cutstone wall, follows alongside it for a few long moments until the footpath diverts away from the wall and deeper into the forest.

Sasuke is waiting underneath a tall evergreen, dressed in all black. When Naruto draws near, he turns on one heel and stalks off as if he hadn't invited Naruto at all. Naruto pauses; Sasuke is radiating a sort of oily kind of shadowiness. It's unsettling. He squares his shoulders and lopes in Sasuke's wake.

Ten minutes (and one text sent as a reply to Iruka) later, Naruto is staring bemusedly at the tree to which Sasuke has led him. It's not the biggest tree in this quietly green wilderness, but it's currently the weirdest. Sasuke has dragged all sorts of crap to this space, and fashioned a shelter out of them up in the broader branches; a series of short planks serve as a ladder marching up the trunk.

A treehouse. Wow, Naruto would have never pegged Sasuke as the outdoors-type, really. Yet, here he is, staring at the slanted walls made of pilfered plywood and sturdy lengths of discarded lumber. It looks very secure, actually, in a rough fashion. 

"Come on," Sasuke says and climbs up the ladder, heading for the hole in the floor of the treehouse. Naruto hesitates, then follows him. Sasuke actually helps him up into the house, his palm warm and dry against Naruto's wrist.

Inside the treehouse, it's a little dark, but Sasuke switches on one of those portable lanterns and the cheerful yellow light is thrown over the wooden walls. There's a little table, and a mattress covered with a blue blanket and quite a few cushions, of all sizes. There's even a blue cooler box thingy; Sasuke pulls open the lid and takes out a can, tosses it to Naruto. 

"Hey, thanks," Naruto says after he catches the can and pries open the tab a little, making sure the soda doesn't spray out on him. When he's sure he won't meet his doom by carbonated beverage, he takes a long swig, and then lets his backpack ease off his shoulders and onto the floor. He follows it down, sitting cross-legged.

Sasuke, cross-legged as well on his mattress, just stares at Naruto; it's kind of uncomfortable, the way his dark eyes have this creepy glitter in them, set there by the light of the lantern. Naruto finds it even creepier than those times that Iruka finds out he's done something messed up, and just smiles ominously at him over dinner.

"You think he killed them," Sasuke says when Naruto is in the middle of another sip, and he nearly chokes on the mouthful. "You do, don't you?"

"What if I do?" Naruto asks and Sasuke's expression becomes nasty. "Look, does it matter if I do?"

"Do you?" Sasuke presses and Naruto sighs. He looks down at the can in his hands, rolling it from side to side.

"I don't know your brother that well," he finally answers on a sigh. He isn't sure what will set Sasuke off, so he's trying to be as zen as possible. "But _you_ know him, so maybe you should answer that question."

Sasuke blinks, then looks down. He was leaning forward to hear Naruto's answer, arms resting atop his thighs. When Naruto looks closely, he sees that Sasuke's hands are _shaking_.

"I want to believe he didn't do it," Sasuke says. His shoulders begin to shake too, a very fine tremble and Naruto realises he's trying very hard not to break apart. Naruto sets down his can and crawls close. He sits beside Sasuke and puts his arm around him. Sasuke takes a deep, shuddering breath.

"He didn't do it," he whispers. "He's my brother, he didn't do it. He _couldn't have_."

"Okay," Naruto says, leaning even closer, so close that he can feel the silky wisps of Sasuke's hair against his cheek. Sasuke's hand comes up and grips Naruto's fingers where they're clutching his shoulder; he squeezes once, and doesn't let go.

"Okay," Sasuke murmurs and he slumps against Naruto. They sit there for awhile, and it is only when Sasuke's breathing becomes easy and calm that Naruto realises that Sasuke has fallen asleep: lips slightly parted, eyelashes clumped damply from unshed tears. He looks exhausted, and beautiful, and Naruto feels a rush of too many things at once, like his body is too small to handle this entire world of sudden deep perception.

And Sasuke is still holding his hand.

**Author's Note:**

> Probably the only Naruto fic I have with no Kakashi *weeps*


End file.
